Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
Alzheimer's Disease Center, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, California, USA.
Alzheimers Dement. 2024 Sep;20(9):6257-6267. doi: 10.1002/alz.14112. Epub 2024 Jul 25.
School-based social support for Black students may mediate or modify the association between school segregation and late-life cognition.
Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans participants (n = 574) reported segregated school attendance and school-based social support. Associations of segregated schooling with domain-specific cognitive outcomes and effect modification or mediation by school-based social support were evaluated with linear mixed models.
Segregated school attendance was associated with increased likelihood of school-based social support. Segregated (vs. desegregated in 6th grade) school attendance was associated with lower executive function (β = -0.18 [-0.34, -0.02]) and semantic memory z-scores (β = -0.31 [-0.48, -0.13]). Social support did not mediate these associations. Estimates for segregated school attendance were attenuated among those who felt supported, although there was limited evidence of statistically significant effect modification.
Early-childhood school segregation was associated with poorer cognitive function. Sources of resilience within racialized educational experiences should be further evaluated to bridge inequities.
School segregation is a form of structural racism that affected the educational experiences of Black youth with potentially lasting consequences for healthy brain aging. Black students who attended a segregated school experienced greater school-based social support, which may highlight a potential source of resilience and resistance against the effects of racism-related stressors on cognitive function. The estimated adverse association between attending a segregated school on cognition was larger for students without an adult at school who cared about them versus those with an adult at school who cared about them, but estimates were imprecise.
针对非裔美国学生的学校层面的社会支持可能会调节或改变学校隔离与晚年认知之间的关系。
研究健康老龄化的非裔美国人参与者（n=574）报告了学校隔离和学校层面的社会支持情况。采用线性混合模型评估了隔离学校教育与特定认知领域结果之间的关联，以及学校层面的社会支持的调节或中介作用。
隔离学校教育与获得学校层面的社会支持的可能性增加有关。与 6 年级时的非隔离学校（vs. 隔离学校）相比，接受隔离学校教育与执行功能（β=-0.18 [-0.34，-0.02]）和语义记忆 z 分数（β=-0.31 [-0.48，-0.13]）较低有关。社会支持并不能解释这些关联。在感到受支持的人群中，隔离学校教育的估计值有所减弱，尽管没有统计学上显著的调节作用的证据。
幼儿期学校隔离与认知功能较差有关。应进一步评估种族化教育经历中的弹性资源，以弥合不平等。
学校隔离是一种结构性种族主义形式，影响了黑人青年的教育经历，可能对健康的大脑老化产生持久影响。就读于隔离学校的黑人学生体验到更多的学校层面的社会支持，这可能突出了一种潜在的弹性来源和对与种族主义相关的压力源对认知功能影响的抵抗。与就读隔离学校对认知的估计不良关联在那些在学校没有关心他们的成年人的学生中比在学校有关心他们的成年人的学生中更大，但估计值不精确。
